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Bad experience ever end your season?

Yep.. Yeah had a bad experience with a doe back before I was a serious deer hunter and I hung it up for 4-5 years...
 
It's the nature of the game. Anyone who has never had anything go wrong when hunting hasn't hunted that much. But it doesn't help for you to beat yourself up over it for the rest of the season.

We do our best to minimize suffering. That's more than I can say for the other predators in the wild. They don't give a lick about it.
 
ImThere said:
if it didn't bother you would probably mean your a serial killer! you stuck with it and done your best. I have only had this experience with a bow spined shot a buck and finished him off with a knife to the neck. Not a good feeling.
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Had this exact thing with a doe a couple years ago.
She struggled until I walked up to her when she stopped struggling and just lay there looking at me. I apologized and thanked her and God as I finished the job.
 
Your reaction is normal, and honestly I would be worried if you didn't feel that way. Bad shots stink and as an ethical hunter we do everything we can to avoid them, but they still do happen, even to the best. There are so many things that can happen that lead to a bad shot.

But the thing to do is as others have mentioned, spend time using this is a learning moment. What can you do different to make sure it doesn't happen again? What can you learn from this?

I've had a couple of these learning moments. My very first archery deer was a gunshot on a doe. Made a stupid mistake and hit her solidly in the guts at only 10 yards from the tree. What bothered me so much is that she had to suffer, and I wasn't able to recover her as I had prior commitments I could not get out of so was unable to return in time to keep from wasting the meat. I have replayed that scenario over and over again to learn from it and to make sure I do better in the future. Since them I've been blessed to take another couple of deer with a bow, both good shots, both quick kills. But as I draw back that bow on a deer, the lessons learned from that first mistake replay in my head as part of the shot process.

Personally I appreciate your perseverance to do all you could to bring the situation to an end and to recover the deer.
 
killingtime 41 said:
I always get a little sad before I get happy.
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^ well said ^ the older I've gotten the more I can relate to this statement. Especially when you have two or three years of pictures of a specific buck...yes its very rewarding to kill that target buck...but for a moment there is a little bit of sadness that the chase is over...so yeah...when walking up on a deer that I've killed there is normally moments of silence and reflection...then the emotions shift to gratitude....so blessed to have the opportunity to chase these animals.
 
If it didn't make you sick, you wouldn't be a true hunter. I glad you stuck it out and did what was right. I'm sorry you had to go through it. I had one very similar. Only I didn't have to track it, but had to shoot him 3 times. I felt the same way. It's because we are ethical hunters and feel empathy for the deer we kill. Take the rest of the season off if you need to, but get back out there next year.
 
Sometimes we get so involved in the pursuit we forget about the animal. These situations make us pause and consider our purpose. If we didn't care about the animals we wouldn't hunt. It's necessary for conservation. But sometimes it's not all fun and games. Sometimes it cuts us to the core.

You acted well and with compassion. That's all you can do! This whole thing is hard! But it reveals us. The good, bad and ugly. IMO, you got the ugly but you did Good!
 
I haven't killed a doe in 5 or 6 years, because the last one I killed had a little one with it.

There were two does and the smaller one in a field. The smaller one seemed to stay closer to one, so I shot the other. I guessed wrong. She ran into the woods a bit, and when I got to her, the little one was standing there.

I knew that it was old enough to survive, but it bothered me. But, I knew also that it would hook up with some of the other does in the area and be fine.

Nope, I hunted that plot some more evenings that season, and the only thing that I would see was that small one. Talk about rubbing salt, and I vowed not to do that again.
 
PalsPal said:
I haven't killed a doe in 5 or 6 years, because the last one I killed had a little one with it.

There were two does and the smaller one in a field. The smaller one seemed to stay closer to one, so I shot the other. I guessed wrong. She ran into the woods a bit, and when I got to her, the little one was standing there.

I knew that it was old enough to survive, but it bothered me. But, I knew also that it would hook up with some of the other does in the area and be fine.

Nope, I hunted that plot some more evenings that season, and the only thing that I would see was that small one. Talk about rubbing salt, and I vowed not to do that again.
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20 or so years ago, a buddy and I were taking a juvi for his first deer hunt. He really wanted to be a hunter. Super excited. He shot a doe that morning. While he was field dressing it, he found a fetus, maybe 4" in length, in her. I can still see the look on his face as he just stood there holding it. I'm not positive, but pretty sure that was his last hunt.
 
Your reaction is understandable. Having to get personal with the deer for an eventual kill shot is not pleasant. The big buck I dropped during ML season this year was only 50 yards away. I have to remind myself about the ballistic trajectory of a round from an old fashioned ML. I was at the top of my arc and it severed his backbone just behind the shoulders. He just couldn't use his back legs. Had to finish the job up close. Not a pleasant thing to do but I literally said a prayer while doing it.

We try to be as quick and humane as we can. We don't always succeed. Hopefully we learn and try to get better.
 
PalsPal said:
I haven't killed a doe in 5 or 6 years, because the last one I killed had a little one with it.

There were two does and the smaller one in a field. The smaller one seemed to stay closer to one, so I shot the other. I guessed wrong. She ran into the woods a bit, and when I got to her, the little one was standing there.
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January 1st this year I was hunting a small food plot for does. I try to take lone does. One came out about 40 yards away. I watched her for a while just to make sure. Finally decided after 10 minutes that was the one. Leveled my rifle just about the time a spotted fawn came out and started nursing on her. Thank God I didn't pull the trigger. I did the math. That doe was bred in March.

That's my argument encouraging people to stop saying Tagged Out and go shoot some does. If there are that many does that it took bucks (which there are many of around here) to get to her to breed, we have TOO MANY does.
 
I may have solved the mystery as to why I hit low. Purely my fault. That rifle has a Trijicon scope with the BAC triangle. At that range the triangle covers quite a bit in a SFP scope. I also went from Black Friday shopping on Amazon to Boom in about 4 seconds because he was crossing a small opening at the end of the field. It's hard to make precision off-hand shots at that distance with the BAC reticle. I knew that, but it didn't register. I should've just passed on the buck. I'll be back out there in a few days, but I'll have a new scope before I take quick, long distance shots. I'm 100% blaming my judgement when things happen fast, not the scope. On a lighter note, it must've been pretty interesting to watch all this unfold. I shot both front legs of the buck. I recently had right knee surgery and the left one is toast. Me hobbling and falling through the woods tracking a buck doing the same thing. This was definitely a battle of the wills.
 
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I shot a buck once at nearly 400yds. He went straight down but what I didn't know was a doe was standing beside him. The bullet passed thru him and spined her. When I got there she was screaming. I had to put her down. We had just set up camp that morning. When I got back to camp with the 2 deer, I told the wife "pack up, we're going home". She talked me into staying the full week but that took the wind out of my sails.
 

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